Despite setting up the meeting, we weren’t present when Almana and her team met with our mission commanders. Everyone was given the day off while we waited to hear how everything worked out.

  Since we were completely free that day, Eve and I decided to just lounge around in our hotel room, naked, finally getting a break from the battle armor.

  We fooled around for a little bit, but even after passing all the morning away in each other’s embrace, we hadn’t heard anything from mission command yet. Made me a little nervous what all they could be talking about—like if we were put on blast for stepping out of our roles, but realistically, they were just handling the logistics with the resistance.

  Suddenly, there was a knock on our door, and while I was lazing around in a blissful state after Eve had been diligently doting on me, she skipped off to check who would be bothering us.

  “Evie, who’s at—” I started, but Eve opened the door right up without delay, despite the fact we were both naked.

  Standing in her nude glory in her beautiful celicapoz body, she moved aside to show it was Kianna in the hallway.

  “Holy shit—Eve.” I scolded, grabbing for a pillow to cover myself.

  Eve trilled a little giggle, “Relax darling, it’s just Kianna; she’s already seen everything back in the Holistia Nebula.” She ran her hands down herself sensually, “Well, not everything.”

  Kianna’s eyes grew wide as a deep scarlet blush filled her face, “I can come back later if you want.”

  Eve rolled her eyes, “Nonsense, no reason for us to be all prudish now, right?” She said, then pulled Kianna forward and closed the door behind her, shoving her into the egg chair beside the bed—the cuck chair, as the Earth internet would call it.

  “Now, be honest, do you think I looked better in my human-hybrid form, or do you like this celicapoz body?” Eve asked, getting surprisingly close to Kianna in the chair.

  Kianna looked wildly embarrassed, wearing her battle armor while surrounded by two naked people—people she watched have sex several times in an insane, drugged out frenzy.

  “Eve, I’m really not here for that now—”

  Eve scoffed in annoyance and pushed the chair away so Kianna nearly fell over, then trotted back to sit in bed next to me—snatching the pillow from covering my dick so she could drape her legs over my bare lap.

  “Come on, Eve, what the hell?” I said, moving her legs to properly cover myself before Kianna.

  Eve let out an irritated groan, “Why are you all so boring now? There’s nothing else for us to do, might as well fool around a little more—try to get weird again.”

  I gestured to Kianna, who was still beat red like a tomato, “Eve, Kianna’s clearly uncomfortable; you can’t just force someone to indulge in our kinks whenever we want, even if they’ve been involved in the past.”

  Kianna nodded, trying to keep her eyes off us, “He’s right Eve, I’m just not in that mindset at all right now, not interested in that stuff while we’re on this dangerous mission.”

  I turned to Eve, “See?”

  “Once we’re back on The Radiance, I’d feel much more comfortable getting involved with you two. Actually, I’d be eager to get involved again.” Kianna admitted.

  “Seriously?” I said incredulously, surprised Kianna turned out to be such a degenerate after all.

  Eve trilled a little giggle then, wrapping her arms around me, “Very well, I’ll accept those terms.” She leaned against me more, not at all caring we were naked, “So, what’s the reason for your visit?”

  Still trying to avoid looking directly at us (while sneaking the occasional peek), Kianna gestured vaguely towards us, “Mission command is still in the meeting with the resistance leaders, so I figured I’d come and ask you what happened yesterday to get you all connected.”

  Eve let out an annoyed sigh, “That’s it? How dreadfully dull.”

  I ignored Eve’s commentary as I tried to have a weirdly awkward naked conversation with my coworker, “Really not much to tell, a total stroke of luck on our part.”

  Kianna quirked up an eyebrow, “You weren’t seeking out anyone from the resistance?”

  I shook my head, “Not at all. We were just kicked out of a movie theater—other customers didn’t feel comfortable around armed soldiers, and while we were in the alleyway outside, we met some punk kid getting chased by militia soldiers, and after we helped hide her away, she wanted us to escort her home to meet her resistance lieutenant sister.” I explained.

  “You didn’t cause trouble with the soldiers, did you?” Kianna asked.

  I let out a quick sigh, “Please tell me those rumors aren’t already circulating?”

  Kianna chuckled and shook her head, “No, but I know how you two can cause trouble. Really, the only rumor about you guys now is how useless everyone else on the team is with what all you’re doing for the mission.” She started ticking off fingers, “You saved us all when the ship came crashing down, you’ve connected the team with a new resistance leader, and of course we can’t forget how we can only complete the mission once we get Eve inside the capital to destroy Beta-09.” She shrugged, “Honestly, people are wondering why we need the team at all when the two of you could probably do it all yourselves—especially if you were untethered.”

  “Finally, someone who appreciates us.” Eve said cheerfully, then gestured to me, “You deserve a reward for that Kianna; would you like a peek of Adam’s delicious human dick?”

  “Eve!”

  Kianna’s blush deepened, “Maybe a quick one…” She admitted.

  “Kianna!”

  Everyone completely ignoring me, Eve moved off my lap and grabbed my dick and started waving it around as though it were some toy—all the while Kianna looked on like she found the show truly fascinating.

  I’d finally had enough when Eve started making sound effects as she waved my dick around, making stupid swooshing noises.

  “Alright, alright, that’s enough of that!” I pushed Eve away and reclaimed my pillow, properly covering my junk once again.

  Eve found the whole thing hilarious, letting me push her and rolling onto the floor, giggling all the while. Even Kianna joined in, laughing at my expense.

  I sighed and shook my head slowly, “I’m surrounded by perverted children…”

  Eve collected herself from the floor and propped up against the bed, blue eyes dancing with amusement, “Please, you love the attention.”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure, it was maybe too much attention. First time in my life I ever thought I would experience that.

  I turned back to Kianna, trying to maintain some semblance of dignity, “Alright, so really, what else did you want to know?”

  Kianna finally calmed down and returned to her serious demeaner, “Just wanted the details on your meeting with this Almana person and what she’s like.”

  I relayed our meeting with Melna and Almana and was honest with all the information I provided them, wanting to know if we actually did overstep any boundaries.

  “So what do you think, will we be in the clear?” I asked.

  Kianna nodded along, “While it was a little strange you told the high schooler we were part of a special forces team, it could be seen as simply trying to calm down or comfort a scared girl in the moment—show yourselves as friendly figures of authority. Other than that, I think you handled the meeting with Almana perfectly; I can’t see any reason command could complain with your actions.” She confirmed.

  I let out a relieved sigh, “At least there’s that.”

  Kianna cocked her head to the side, looking a little confused by my reaction, “Is it really so bad for the two of you now? You act like you don’t even want to be here at all.”

  Eve was back on the bed, leaning against me, looking at me with a rather level gaze, seeing how I would respond. So far, only a couple people knew how bad things really were for us, bound by the Empire; Tillia knew since we opened up to her when Eve reclaimed her biomass, and then Lobae and Vinnago knew because we revealed everything to them in a shouting match. It was important to be careful who we shared our secrets with, but I felt like Kianna could be trusted now, at least with this much.

  I tilted my head to the side, showing off the silver disk on my neck, “See this? That’s an explosive the Lord Generals had implanted in my neck. They’ve implanted a failsafe in me now too—a failsafe for the failsafe.”

  Kianna’s eyes grew wide, and she stood up to get a closer look, “That can’t be right—they would really go to such extreme lengths to control you and Eve?”

  I nodded once, “They’ve completely stripped us of our freedoms. We aren’t on these missions as a job anymore, now it’s through coercion and force.”

  “What the fuck—why?” She demanded.

  “The court martial did not go well.” Eve confirmed.

  “They’ve blamed us for everything bad that’s happened during the Predazoan containment mission so far, including all the deaths and damage done in the Holistia Nebula, and how close we were to a complete exposure.” I added.

  Kianna sat back in her chair, shaking her head slowly, looking like she could hardly believe it, “How? How the hell could they blame the only people who have any chance of succeeding in this mission? They should be treating the two of you like royalty.”

  “Like gods, really.” Eve corrected offhandedly.

  “It all started with me making the stupid decision to allow them to put the failsafe bomb in Eve’s core, from there, it was a series of more aggressive steps to completely control us.” I admitted.

  Kianna looked up at me, “Adam, you couldn’t possibly have known it would’ve led to all this.”

  I shrugged, “Doesn’t matter, I was an idiot and an asshole for ever agreeing to let them put that bomb in my Evie.”

  Eve patted my hand beside me, “It was reckless and foolish, but I don’t blame you; honestly, you truly believed it was the only way they would’ve let you stay aboard The Radiance with me, and if the alternative was to be sent back to Earth without me, I completely agree with your decision back then.”

  “But, while Eve is impossibly dangerous to the point it’s somewhat reasonable to think she needs the failsafe, the idea of putting an explosive failsafe in a citizen of the Empire, I can hardly believe it.” Kianna pressed.

  I quirked up an eyebrow then, “Really, you find it hard to believe an Empire that has no problem executing innocent soldiers in order to keep their secrets would be willing to plant bombs in their most valuable assets to keep them compliant?” I said bitterly.

  Kianna smacked her forehead as though she just had a great revelation, “Oh, no wonder you were so distraught over their deaths.”

  “And you weren’t?” I pressed.

  Kianna looked down then, clearly ashamed, “No, it was horrible, but I was thinking it was for the good of the mission; if they ended up leaking the secret of the Predaozans to the public, what if that exposure prevented us from freeing their world? I thought of it in terms of killing four soldiers to save an entire planet.” She looked up at me, “But you saw yourself as those soldiers—pawns of a cruel Empire to be used and tossed aside at the first sign of noncompliance.”

  While I could admit I hadn’t looked at it in the same way Kianna had, judging four lives against the lives of everyone else on the planet, I still didn’t think that was a valid excuse.

  “Kianna, I need to know right now how you feel about this—about the Empire; do you think it’s necessary for them to contain their most powerful asset, or do you think it’s a cruel step too far?” I pressed.

  Kianna shook her head quickly, “No, no Adam, I promise I would never agree with them threatening you like this. There could be a thousand ways they could keep you compliant—throw money or riches at you, any indulgence you could imagine, make your lives like a dream really. But to resort to violence right off, as though that was the only available option? That’s just evil.” She insisted.

  So, she still wanted us compliant, to work for her Empire. I could understand Kianna’s reasoning, but I wasn’t sure if it conflicted with ours yet.

  Could we actually trust her? That was the big question.

  I turned to Eve, “What do you think?”

  Eve looked over to appraise Kianna, but before she could say anything, Kianna gestured to herself, “Read my mind, feel what I’m thinking; I’ll be completely open and honest with you. I truly believed in the Predazoan containment mission as a way to prevent untold tragedies, same as I believed the Predazoan cloning research could lead to amazing scientific discoveries that could save lives. But none of this would be worth it if we lose ourselves along the way—lose our purpose and resort to violence to cover up all our mistakes.” She insisted.

  I turned back to Eve again, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sense Kianna’s thoughts now, wondering if it was a genius bluff on her part.

  ~What are you thinking?~ I asked through the humming vibrations. Even this close to Kianna, I knew she wouldn’t be able to hear anything from us at all, even the noises we were making.

  ~Kianna is a brilliant scientist, but she’s no spy, of that I’m sure from what I sensed of her mind before my senses were sealed. Plus, judging by her demeaner and body language, I can tell she isn’t lying~ She confirmed.

  ~You’re sure?~

  Eve nodded once, ~I believe she can be trusted, and I do believe it’s time we start slowly and carefully gathering allies who might prove themselves useful in getting us free~

  Eve turned back to Kianna as a coy smile spread on her face, “I can only sense how much you still desire Adam’s cock, how you wish to taste it, to feel it inside you. Your thoughts alone are almost enough to make me jealous.” She said dangerously.

  Kianna’s face turned bright red once again, “Okay, okay, enough mind reading then.” She looked towards me, but couldn’t meet my eyes, “I believe she’s taking those thoughts out of context—it was a dream really, not even a conscious thought.”

  Judging by Kianna’s reaction, Eve straight-up guessed some of what she was thinking. Even with her senses dulled, she had that supercomputer brain working for her.

  I let out a weary sigh, “Right right, well, so long as we all understand each other.” I turned serious once more, “So long as you understand why we’ve soured a bit on the mission.”

  Kianna turned serious again too, “I understand completely. To be honest, one of the things I wanted to discuss was how you’ve been blowing off Lobae and Vinnago, they admitted to me you really hurt their feelings. But now, I can completely understand why you’d be reticent to be friends with agents of the Empire.”

  I nodded, “Right, what’s to stop them from pulling the trigger and executing us if the Empire demanded it of them? I don’t see how we could ever be friends with that knowledge.”

  “Like a guard who holds the key to your cell trying to show himself as a friend, seems completely disingenuous—manipulative even.” Eve added.

  Kianna sighed too, “Yeah, I definitely get it.” She shrugged, “Want me to talk to them about it?”

  I shook my head, “No need; the relationship has been severed, no reason to spare their feelings at all now.”

  I could see Kianna somewhat disagreed—she was still probably friends with them after all, but she could understand why we wouldn’t want to be now.

  Before she could say anything else, all three of our communicators went off at the same time. We all reached over for them to see a message was sent by command; the meeting with the resistance was over, and Lieutenant Almana’s team agreed to take over and escort us to meet Ferro in Sesamna.

  Kianna smiled brightly, “Well, who cares what boundaries you overstepped, it looks like it all worked out in our favor.”

  There was another message sent, we needed to be ready to ship out within two hours.

  “Wow, so soon?” I said.

  Eve got off my lap and stood me up too, leaving us both standing naked before Kianna just a foot away from her.

  “Seems like we won’t have much time to fool around like this now, so this is really the last chance we’ll have for a while.” She turned to Kianna, “How about it? Wanna watch us fuck around a little before we start in on the mission proper?”

  I sighed and covered my junk before Kianna, “Eve, for the last time, Kianna said she isn’t comfortable with—”

  “I mean we have two hours to kill, and it’s not like I have anything else going on.” Kianna said, her face scarlet once more, but this time I could see the lust in her eyes, “So, sure, I could stick around for a little while.” She said offhandedly, trying to sound casual despite looking anything but.

  I turned to glare at Eve who just smiled that devious little smile of hers.

  “Well darling, you heard the girl; time to put on a show.”